Guinea’s opposition has vowed to dispute the results of the concluded general elections, saying they were neither free nor fair.
Incumbent President Alpha Conde is tipped to win a second term, and has led appeals for calm after a series of violence marred the build up to the election leading to the deaths of around a dozen people on Thursday and Friday.
The polls were to close at 1800GMT but the national electoral commission officials announced on Sunday that a two-hour extension was necessary to ensure nobody was locked out.
The results of the first round of voting are not expected until at least on Tuesday.
Former prime minister Celloe Dalein Diallo, elading the pack of seven challengers to Conde said that he hopes there will not be violence after the elections and that the people of Guinea will show maturity.
Alpha Conde, now 77, won the country’s first democratic elections in 2010 after returning from exile where he spent 30 years. The elections were however tainted by violence and accusations of fraud, just as the legislative polls in 2013.
He hopes to bank on his five-year record of reforms, citing achievements such as an overhaul of the army and judiciary, as well as the completion of a hydroelectric dam.
Conde’s rivals have however accused him of bad management, notably at the height of the Ebola crisis, and of fanning ethnic tensions, especially among the Fulani people.
